(There are six categories: TRUE &#8211; The statement is accurate and there&#8217;s nothing significant missing.MOSTLY TRUE &#8211; The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information.HALF TRUE &#8211; The statement is accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context.BARELY TRUE &#8211; The statement contains some element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.FALSE &#8211; The statement is not accurate.PANTS ON FIRE &#8211; The statement is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim.)

We all know the names -- that seem to be able to manipulate our political system to their end, no matter which party is in power....

We no longer live in the age of Mom and Pop shop capitalism. This is Corporate Capitalism. A socialistic approach of breaking up some of that 1% wealth -- and re-distributing it among the lower 95% is now in order I think.

Here's another website. The numbers cited here seem to corroborate Michael Moore's as well, and, god, are they depressing.

by the way, this "the super-rich pay 40% in federal taxes" line is a favorite of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. They seem to prefer not to phrase it the other way round: "the richest 1 percent have more financial wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined".

(if I were in that top elite 1% club, I shouldn't mind paying 40% in federal taxes either. I already pay over 25%)

I am not here to write a simple polemic on the evils of our current capitalist system (I think I've done that elsewhere). I am here to try to honestly figure the damned thing out -- and if this system is really a just and equitable one.

Yes indeed, Michael Moore is perfectly free to make potloads of money.

So are you, and so is anyone else.

You seem to have some problem with this.

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This is'nt true.

If a person has a bad start in life and misses a good education they are limited to what they can do.

On a minimum wage you can earn enough to 'get by'.

Furthering your education costs money which is hard to scrape together when you have so little.

The sad fact is that most people are in a constant cycle of trying to make ends meet and have so much financial stress weighing them down that the motivation to go back to school after you've worked a labour intensive shift is rarely existent because you need to rest or have kids to look after.

If you are born into prosperity you are unlikely to ever have financial worries and if you are born into poverty you are unlikely to escape from it. Only rare exceptions exist.

My neighbor has many things I do not have and we both work. He has a better job than me. Maybe I should go over there and "redistribute" his wealth.

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Please, let's not fall into the trap of "redistributing" your neighbor's wealth, the guy who makes perhaps $100,000 a year.

Nobody's talking about him.

We're talking about the CEO who owns 5 billion dollars of financial wealth... and redistributing some of that wealth back into the country's infrastructure and to the have-nots in the form of a healthcare system... I know, I know. SO Marxist! So unreasonable. That CEO can survive on just one billion, I'll bet.

My neighbor has many things I do not have and we both work. He has a better job than me. Maybe I should go over there and "redistribute" his wealth.

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You should have re-edited your post not just for spelling, but for repeating one of the most tired Conservative talking points ever known on the subject matter.

Making our economy more efficient so that more people have the ability to make money is not a bad thing. Because let's be honest... neither you OR your neighbor are part of the top 1%. So why even drone the rhetoric of the greedy who thinks their lives are going to crumble if they don't receive MORE tax cuts than they've already got? When did you wake up and think that you had more in common with the "rich elite" than your actual neighbor?

Yes indeed, Michael Moore is perfectly free to make potloads of money.

So are you, and so is anyone else.

You seem to have some problem with this.

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Really? Somehow, you find similarities in the way Michael Moore makes his money compared to the way most Bank, Insurance & Corporate CEOs do it? BTW, when you answer this do yourself a favor and not say that they both "work hard". Because we all do.

There was a time when Christians didn't lend money for fear of going to Hell. There was a religious group that could or did, the Jews. Maybe that's why to this day "Jewish banker" features prominently in the far fringe thinking of some people.Ascent of Money | Watch online for free | documentary-log.com
Part one, about 19:00-22:00 minutes into it.

Today the USA has a greater wealth disparity than Brazil.Brazil's Elites Fly Above Their Fears (washingtonpost.com)
Yes the article is from 2002 there are more recent documents that show largely the same thing. Anywhere from top 1% to top 10% control 50 percent of the wealth in the country.

In this sprawling nation of 170 million, sociologists call it the price of social inequity. Brazil has one of the most marked disparities of wealth in the world, with the richest 10 percent of the population controlling more than 50 percent of the wealth, while the poorest 10 percent control less than 1 percent. The disparity is particularly visible in Sao Paulo, a financial and commercial capital where many of Brazil's richest people live and work.

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And yet people still wonder why most Americans feel like the USA is going to Hell in a handbag.

Gold Member

While I do understand your concern, I don't think they should redistribute the wealth that people have earned. They worked for it, and yes...other people who get way less money may work harder than them... but that's life.

If you were in the top 1% you wouldn't want your money to be taken away either. You know that as well.

I do understand where you're coming from, but I'm getting tired of this 'us against the rich'.

While I do understand your concern, I don't think they should redistribute the wealth that people have earned. They worked for it, and yes...other people who get way less money may work harder than them... but that's life.

If you were in the top 1% you wouldn't want your money to be taken away either. You know that as well.

I do understand where you're coming from, but I'm getting tired of this 'us against the rich'.

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Interest is not EARNED money, it is paid for by banks who reap the cash from the less well off in bank charges and interest on loans which the rich don't generally need. Result....the poor finance the rich.

I LOVE it :smile:. America likes to think of itself as a 'Christian' nation but it cherry picks it's way through the Bible. Of course those profiting from religion do NOT want these passages from the Bible mentioned.

Most have not heard of the Christian Jubilee. And no wonder, it talks about forgiveness and debt relief. This is not something the Masters of the Universe that run the country are interested in pushing in their so called 'Think Tanks'. So we have a political party and a movement that frames itself as the people of God while passing bankruptcy laws that make it harder for people to get out of debt.

While I do understand your concern, I don't think they should redistribute the wealth that people have earned. They worked for it, and yes...other people who get way less money may work harder than them... but that's life.

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If the gap between rich and middle class/poor became so great over the years that the United States was in danger of becoming a third-world country, would people still say "Well, the rich earned it, hey that's life!"?

If, like in some South American countries, the top 1% can extract almost ALL the wealth out of the vast bottom, is this just like a game of Monopoly where one person "wins" -- and it's therefore OK if the rest starve and grovel? Because they "lost" the capitalistic game?

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You all know I'm an atheist. A good-hearted atheist, I'd like to think, but still an atheist.

Yet some of christians here, who are supposed to be about "charity", have been duped into believing that it's OK to play a game of Monopoly with the economic system so that the top 1% owns damned near everything. And THEN these christians will vigorously defend breaking up the CEO's wealth, that guy who owns 5 billion dollars of financial wealth, to help pay for the poor's healthcare.

If we were to target the guys who own 5 billion dollars or more -- and we took (yes, "stole") their money to pay for the poor's healthcare and the country's infrastructure, isn't this a more christian ideal than the Monopoly game (we'll still leave that CEO at least one billion dollars to live on)?

Nick8: Anybody who has to use a credit card to buy that "wonderful black truffle-stuffed brie that I can only find at Garden of Eden" --- in fact, anybody who has to use a CREDIT CARD period, and maintains any card debt and pays interest, would be considered part of the proletariat for the new Revolution.